When you think you're done, you're just beginning

This week…. This week!  It has been wonderful.

Monday BodyAttack

Wednesday BodyShred

Thursday BodyShred

Saturday playing with a 2.5 year old and impromptu fitness session at Marie's condo

Sunday BodyPump AND BodyAttack.

My heart and muscles have increased 2 sizes!  The greatest was today.  I was up bright and early for BodyPump at 10:30.  Having gone to sleep quite late the previous night because of a party, this was my first small victory of the day.  Marie joined me for the class, and I'm happy to report that we did very well for not having done Pump in many weeks.  We finished the one-hour class successfully, grabbed our things, and left.

However!  Just as we were exiting the building, we saw Alisa, my Monday night BodyAttack instructor.  We burst through the door, and Marie asked "Are you teaching Attack now?!"  Alisa said no, but that she was taking the class and that we should join.  We looked at each other, turned right around, and followed her back into the gym.  What ensued was a magnificent display of second wind.  We somehow gathered up the energy to keep going for another hour.  We sweat through runs, agility training, and more pushups.

At the end of the hour, we were completely wiped, but we felt so GOOD.  There's something amazing about beating your body up like that.  You become so exhausted, but it energises you.  Tonight's sleep is very well deserved.  This week's lesson: when you think you're done, you're just beginning.  Your real workout begins when you're completely exhausted and think you can't go another step.

I have a run coming up on the 8th of September.  I haven't been doing my regular runs outdoors lately, but I hope that my strength and cardio training in my gym classes will translate well.  I'll do some runs this week and see where I'm at.  I will report!  I may need to do some emergency run training and fewer gym classes.

Jillian Michaels at Canfitpro at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre

It's a busy weekend down at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.  The CanFitPro Consumer Fitness + Wellness Show is on for 3 days, and it has drawn people from all around.  As I mentioned briefly in my previous entry, Marie and I both entered to win a contest to participate with a friend in a BodyShred class led by Jillian Michaels, a guest of honour at the show.  I ended up winning, so off we went on Friday morning to line up to get a good spot in the room.  What greeted us was a glorious atmosphere of fit and beautiful people milling about, waiting for a workshop or browsing around the trade show in search of new shoes or a new protein bar.

Shred was held in a giant hall, which fit 500 people.  Lucky us, though - we were at the front!  4 rows away from the stage, in fact.  We got in, grabbed our 3lb weights, and secured our spots.  Marie was super excited, jumping around and grinning like a looney!  We stretched, struck up a conversation with a girl who works at a Markham Goodlife, and gawked at the large room.  Our regular Wednesday night Shred instructor, Lauren, was also there, and she dropped by to say hello.  A lot of Goodlife instructors were there, catching up with old friends and, I'm sure, making new ones.  There was a nice buzz of excitement in the room, and it was contagious.

The workout itself was great, and we did some new moves we don't normally do.  Jillian came out onto the stage (to great applause and cheering), greeted us, and jumped right into explaining all the moves.

She went through each one before hitting play and starting up the workout.  BodyShred is just a half hour long, so it was done in the blink of an eye.  She was yelling at us to keep our asses moving!  At one point she came down off the stage and was interacting with some of the girls in front of us, getting them to lift their knees higher and push harder.

Jillian Michaels is ripped.  She's a shorter lady, at 5'2", but her personality and muscles make her seem dozens of metres taller!

And while she's known for crazy workouts and intense execution, she seems like a really down-to-earth person.  When she was demonstrating the moves before the workout began, she was losing her balance a bit, and she just laughed at herself, rather than getting annoyed.  I'm sure a one-on-one session with her would be intense and scary, but as it stands, I really enjoyed the class and how it was taught.  I can see how our instructor has modelled her execution of the class on Jillian's.  A good instructor makes all the difference, just like a good teacher in high school, or an inspiring professor at university.  A good fitness instructor will show you the moves clearly, explain them with ease, and do the moves with you.  They will make sure you know exactly what it coming up and when.  We definitely get that Wednesday nights, and we definitely got that Friday morning.

When the workout was over, we grabbed our things and headed over to the trade show to see what was going on there.  We entered another hall with displays from all sorts of protein powder, energy bar, running shoe, and fitness machine companies.  We tried a bunch of the shakes and bars, looked through the clothes (I picked up a new headband - let's see if this will keep those wisps of hair from getting in my eyes), and chatted with people who were selling their ideas (a new Tai Chi program, an obstacle course, and so on).  Marie pointed out that because so many fitness instructors attend the show, we were grouped in with them by association.  We were at the trade show and therefore employed by a gym.  We got a nice, inclusive vibe from the room and the people.  There weren't a lot of freebies, but it was fun to wander around and see what's out there in the commercial fitness world.

Done with the trade show, we went to meet the other Marie for dim sum, and then a bit of a shopping trip at the Eaton Centre (well deserved!).  A successful day that has left me feeling happy, inspired, and revved up for next Wednesday night Shred!


Finally, this isn't fitness-related, but a funny thing happened on the way to register for the trade show first thing when I got there in the morning.  I headed to what looked like registration tables.  I gave my photo I.D. to the woman there, who spoke with a Spanish accent.  She was looking for my name on her sheet but couldn't find it.  I piped up and said that I'd done the free registration and that I didn't actually know if I was supposed to sign up at that desk.  Revelation dawned on her face, but then the strangest thing happened - she switched to Spanish.  I barely even realised at first, though something at the back of my head was telling me that this wasn't normal.  "Look, you have to go over to those registration desks there (*points to desks*) and they can confirm your registration there.  This is for instructors," she said.  So I said "OK, gracias!" and headed over, meanwhile starting to realise what had just happened.   It's funny that she assumed I'd understand her, but I think it's awesome!

Confirmed: Exercise = Yay

Exercise-wise, it has been a very unremarkable week.  I took it easy in that department and focused on social activities.  I also wasn't feeling the greatest (stomachache a few days, headache a few others).

Monday was a holiday, and I did just that - holidayed.  Wednesday I did BodyShred (our regular instructor is back after 2 weeks away), and the rest of the week I was too busy doing one thing or another to go for a run or to the gym.  I feel extremely slobby and lazy and guilty about this, but there's nothing I can do now to fix the past, so time to move on!!

The weekend was great, since we had the Taste of the Danforth festival, an impromptu waffle party at Marie's with Ben and a new friend, and drinks at a new German restaurant (where I proceeded to spill a drink on said new friend).  Sunday was another beach day (one where we actually went to the beach!), where I met 5369 new people and was overwhelmed.  I think I shut down a little because I was so tired from the previous night. Hahaha!  But it was great going out, meeting people, having a good laugh, and forgetting what work is.

It's Monday evening now, and I just got back from my regular Attack (the one I skipped last week).  It's helped me start to feel more normal.  It's going to be a busy week with James visiting from Chicago and Esther's wedding on the weekend.  Then work starts to pick up the following week as we prepare for the September rush.  Also - and this is something I found out about last week, actually - Marie and I are going to the CanFitPro Consumer Fitness + Wellness Show on Friday to take a class with Jillian Michaels, the celebrity trainer!  I won a contest that Marie posted on Facebook through Goodlife, so off we go for an hour, where we will get yelled at by one of the most intense fitness people ever.  Here's hoping we survive!

I have no deep exercise-related insights from this week, other than confirmation that I feel crummy when I'm too lazy.  I feel more energetic when I'm Attacking and Shredding and Pumping and running. :)  However, that is not to say that this week wasn't amazing.  It certainly was, considering the number of people I met and the activities I got up to with my friends.  It feels like a prelude of things to come.  This time last year I was just settling back into Toronto, reconnecting with my friends, and on the verge of getting a job and making a number of new friends.  I feel like it's the season for that.  It's late summer, we're starting to slowly lose minutes off of our extra long days, it's getting cooler in the evenings and mornings, and we're scrambling to squeeze out as much fun as we possibly can from the lingering summer atmosphere.  A lot can stem from those last, urgent actions taken to lengthen the season.  I'm living in the happiness of the present and looking forward to the pleasant mysteries of the future.

Letting go

It's been a busy, sometimes stressful week.  I worked many hours, which was great, since it kept me busy and made the time fly.

We're five days into August, and it's not exactly what I was expecting, but it'll get better.  The weather has been bizarre for the past few weeks - chilly at night and in the mornings, warm (but not that hot) during the days.  It turns out that I may be the only person in the world who actually likes her summers blazing hot.  I want that humidity and that oppressive heat that makes you want to sit in the shade with a glass of ice cubes.  I hope it comes back, because the weather we have now is starting to get on my nerves.

It was a very physical week.  I did my usual Monday BodyAttack and Wednesday BodyShred.  On Thursday, Marie convinced me to do a back-to-back combo of Attack and Shred.  So we did that.  It was exhausting.  Our legs wanted to fall off.  Friday was a very physical day, as I helped moved boxes around the medical section of the store.  I got a strength and endurance workout over the 9 hours I was there.  Later that evening I was hailed on while biking home.  Ouch!  I took refuge a minute away from my house because the wind was so strong that I was being blown off my bike.

After a few months of hiatus, the Ben/Elisa running team is back!  We ran our usual route on Saturday morning, although we were both feeling a bit tired out from our previous days.  It was a lot of fun to run together again, and now that we're back on the wagon, we're going to push hard.  The Island run is coming up in just over a month, so I want to be absolutely ready for it.  I plan to beat my standing 10K finish time.  

On Sunday we were supposed to go to the beach, but when we all gathered at Marie's, we lounged for 2 hours and then went to see the Wolverine movie.  Oops.  When we left the movie, we were hyper and talking about wanting to learn parkour.  We went back to Marie's and made delicious pizza.  We had a wonderful time chilling on the patio and chatting.

Today is a holiday, but there's no rest for the wicked.

I hope to take part of this day to reflect on this past year.  July 31st marked my 1 year "anniversary" of coming back to Toronto.  So much has happened to me.  It's been good, bad, ugly, pretty, exciting, and dreadfully anxious.  I still haven't found that perfect dream job, I still live with my parents and earn not quite enough to live on my own sans roommates, but my friends are great.  Sometimes when I think my personal life is in shambles, or I feel like a monster or a horrible person that nobody wants to be with, I think of my friends.

There are so many things that are left unsaid to people in my past, but I have to just let it all go.  Let it go so that it doesn't have power over me.  Ignore the hurt and pain that it caused me, and convince myself it has no bearing on my life now.  I have the tendency to let things haunt me for long, long times.  It's a curse.  The only positive thing is that it makes me remember what I want and makes me smarter in avoiding the things that look unhealthy for me.  Unfortunately, however, it also makes me a bit suspicious.  Maybe another goal for me, besides building up my self-confidence, is to work on letting go - not just forgiving, but also forgetting.  Because it's not going to do me any good to remember small, painful things from my past that cannot be fixed.

Take a deep breath, hold it, clear the mind, and go.